Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 13, 2022

Is any of this money going for child support?

But did she sculpt “Waiting For The Interurban”? I don’t think so…

JJ – you left him, not the other way round.

Can’t wait to see her ego crash when she and “Uncle Stupidhead” meet Kim and see the success of her and Mike’s business!!

Too bad they couldn’t open a business together sculpting computer code

Taste in art and intelligence in technology obviously didn’t go hand-in-hand.

She’s a head taller than Zeke now that she’s feeling empowered.

Just get the money first. Living well is the best revenge, and frankly he is revenging better than you, “princess”.

Hmmm. She is going to arrive to meet the hot young woman (who her daughter adores) that Mike is involved with. I don’t remember the strips from this time, but I can’t imagine it is the victory lap she imagines.

Is Zeke holding a can of beer seen in the 2nd & 4th frames of today’s strip? Gary Trudeau must be trying to reinforce the whole redneck theme is the only reason I can see for the open beverage can…but in a very subtle way. I guess it could be soda just as easily as a beer, so hard to know for sure!

I used to ridicule J.J. as much as anybody here but as I look back on her storyline decades later I see how the deck was stacked in comparing the lives of the two exes. J.J.’s story was a partial parody of the Bridges of Madison County if Francesca had really run off with the Clint Eastwood character (and if that character were more of an idiot). Trudeau likes to ridicule her artwork but she did get commissions and also drove a cab to help make ends meet. Before she left Mike he was wallowing in a depression and not doing anything to try make changes.

In the flip side of the story, Mike, a conflicted, very depressed ad man selling his soul to flog the Mr. Butts campaign among other things, has a series of summer fantasy dreams magically come to life to change his circumstances. With no effort on his part he is whisked to a great home in Seattle with a great paying job provided by an old college friend, and has a very young trophy girlfriend (her joking words later) dropped in his lap. As J.J.‘s art is parodied (I think just by being art – for some reasons cartoonists love to ridicule art), Mike and Kim’s startup will be very successful but essentially providing a product that does nothing (which was part of the parody).

An unusually lucid moment for Zeke.

If I remember right,Mike&Kim were smart enough to buy their house for cash when their company was at its height. J.J> just had to ask Mama Joanie for a loan.

She gets to meet Mike’s cute new girlfriend.

Yup….she’s about to meet Kim

greeeeeat.. the adultress and uncle stupidhead

These two kinda deserve each other.

After all these years, what the hell she doing with this low life scum bag.

Hope she run’s into the younger, much younger girlfriend.

Note that it seems JJ has not thought of seeing her daughter while she’s in town.

Mike’s already won…He’s got a real relationship with his daughter…